Content Distribution Skill

Content Distribution

Use this skill when the user wants to make one piece of thinking travel farther across platforms without becoming a full-time creator.

Follow writing-voice for tone. Use social-media when drafting final LinkedIn, X, or Reddit post copy.

Core Philosophy

The goal is not to become a full-time creator. The goal is to make existing thinking travel farther.

Use one markdown source. Use real artifacts. AI adapts, packages, resizes, rewrites, captions, and formats. AI does not pretend to be the author.

real idea
  -> pages/<slug>.md (the private draft)
  -> adaptations/<slug>-<channel>-<format>.md (platform-native rendering)
  -> publications/<adaptation-stem>-<platform>.md (a shipped placement)
  -> performance notes
  -> next ideas from replies

Default Workflow

Identify the source artifact: a pages/ note, article draft, photo, screenshot, code diff, ASCII diagram, spec excerpt, voice note, or product decision.
Distill one content atom: thesis, tension, proof, visual, audience, and desired reaction.
Choose renderers by platform, not by rewriting the idea from scratch.
Preserve the human thesis and concrete examples. Let AI adapt structure and phrasing.
Produce wrappers for each platform: hook, caption, title, CTA, and format.
Keep performance notes simple: hook, visual type, platform, replies, saves, shares, profile clicks, and next variant.

Content Atom

Before rendering, reduce the source to this shape:

Thesis:
  The claim the post is making.

Tension:
  Why the claim matters or what common belief it pushes against.

Proof:
  Concrete artifact, example, diff, screenshot, metric, failure, or quote.

Visual:
  Real photo, screenshot, diagram, code, spec excerpt, or Marp slide.

Audience:
  Who should feel seen, challenged, or helped.

Desired reaction:
  save, argue, try, reply, share, click, subscribe.

Renderer Decision Tree

Does the user need platform versions?
  -> Use references/platform-renderers.md.

Does the output need strong opening lines?
  -> Use references/hooks.md.

Does the output include carousels or short video?
  -> Use references/marp-remotion-pipeline.md.

Platform Grouping

Treat TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts as one short-video renderer with small platform wrappers:

Same:
  core idea, slides, photos, screenshots, voiceover, captions.

Different:
  first hook frame, title, caption, CTA, pacing if needed.

Treat Medium and Substack as one article renderer with different relationship posture:

Medium:
  discovery and searchable article.

Substack:
  relationship, continuity, and personal context.

Treat LinkedIn and X as related but not identical:

LinkedIn:
  canonical concise public argument with one strong visual.

X:
  fragments, threads, sharper hooks, higher frequency.

Treat Reddit separately:

Reddit:
  native subreddit post or comment. Rewrite around the community. Do not dump recycled promo.

Source Of Truth

pages/<slug>.md is the source. channel is the content identity (bradencodes, braden-essays, epicenter, ...). In the sibling vault repo, channel promises live at ../vault/specs/20260609T010000-channel-promise-approval-ledger.md; read that file before picking a channel for a page for the first time because each channel's "what belongs" and "what does not belong" sections are normative. format is short-video | thread | text | article. platform is the distribution surface (instagram, x, medium, personal-blog, ...).

pages/2026-06-15-my-page.md
  -> adaptations/2026-06-15-my-page-bradencodes-thread.md
       -> publications/2026-06-15-my-page-bradencodes-thread-x.md
  -> adaptations/2026-06-15-my-page-braden-essays-article.md
       -> publications/2026-06-15-my-page-braden-essays-article-personal-blog.md

Both layers are append-only

Never edit an existing adaptation or publication file's content in place. This is a ledger, not a mutable record.

Content changed (revised article, rewritten thread)? Create a new adaptation file, dated with its own creation date (not the page's date), so the filename doesn't collide with the original.
Shipping again, either an update to something already live or a genuine repost months later? Create a new publication row. Point it at the new adaptation if the content changed, or the same adaptation if it's an unchanged repost.

What's currently live is derived, not stored: for a given (page, channel, format, platform), the current publication is the one with the latest published_at. Older publication rows are history, not stale data to clean up.

Current vault schema: pages/matter.json requires title, date, timezone, and status; adaptations/matter.json requires page, channel, and format; publications/matter.json requires adaptation and platform, with optional scheduled_for, published_at, and url. Existing adaptation files may also carry subtitle as a channel-specific dek; the page's own title stays private and canonical. Leave published_at blank until content is actually live.

Do Not

Do not generate pure AI images or pure AI videos when the user asked for authentic content from existing materials.
Do not turn every platform into a separate original writing task.
Do not optimize for raw volume before a platform wrapper preserves the author's taste.
Do not add fake vulnerability, fake lessons, fake metrics, or invented personal stories.
Do not let platform advice override the source thesis.

Vault References

../vault/specs/20260609T010000-channel-promise-approval-ledger.md: channel promises and what belongs on each channel.
../vault/specs/20260611T230004-channel-routing-cheat-sheet.md: quick channel routing decisions.
../vault/specs/20260613T181206-channel-routing-test-batch.md: examples that test the routing rules against real pages.

Agent Skills: Content Distribution

Install this agent skill to your local

Skill Files